The Best Approach to Soft Polytheism

My causal, human mind wants Satan to be the same entity as Loki and Ahriman because of how simple the universe would be if that were true. Believing this misconception would give me a sensation of understanding that makes me more comfortable in my relationship with the Numinous*. There are distinct similarities, archetypally speaking, between these divinities, and concluding that they are all the same would relieve me of the feeling of ambiguity that makes me more hesitant to pursue a relationship with those divinities than I would be if I were certain of their identities.

*"The Numinous" is a synonym for "the Divine" with specific philosophical connotations. The concept of the Numinous, coined by Rudolf Otto, is central to my philosophy, as well as to the philosophies of Mircea Eliade and David Myatt, who is also known as Stephen Leather and Anton Long. Anton Long's take on this concept is the one most influential to me. You do not need to understand the philosophical concept of the Numinous to understand my writings, you just need to understand that "the Numinous" is a synonym for "the Divine" but never a synonym for "the Divine All."

Many black magickians begin to question their sanity as they are forced to confront, through gnosis, hidden truths about reality. I have never questioned mine, and I would urge you not to question yours. It will always be possible to accomplish more with magick than we are capable of believing is possible. There are always truths about the Numinous that we will never be able to accept or understand. Our guiding spirits and True Will determine how much gnosis we are to be burdened with. There is certain knowledge we need to have to transcend mortality and actualize our True Will, and we are going to receive that knowledge if we are willing to work for it, but there will always be truth we cannot handle, and that will be withheld from us by our guiding spirits and our own reasoning process. All of us will live in the dark until the day we fucking die.

The demons who guide you, despite being legitimately invested in your acquisition of gnosis, will lie to your face. Forever. This is why it is so difficult to accurately identify one given spirit with similar entities from other religious paradigms. When you ask your guiding spirits whether or not Satan and Ahriman are one and the same, you are like a child asking your parents if Santa is real. Frankly, your parents are more concerned with what you want for Christmas, and the child will still have the mind of a child regardless of the answer they give him.

In general, ascertaining whether or not two entities are one requires two or more of three things: (i) thorough research, (ii) personal gnosis or coven gnosis, and (iii) the personal or coven gnosis of witches who are external to your in-person magickal group (online acquaintances). It is optimal for coven gnosis or personal gnosis to be the first source you pursue so that you don't have preconceptions cloud your gnosis. There will be occasions where the circumstances allow for completely accurate conclusions to be drawn in such matters without the two-source-minimum guideline I just provided-- it's just a guideline.

I used the two-source minimum rule to find out that Davcina, a goddess venerated in Hebdomadry (the paradigm of the ONA), was the same entity as the ancient goddesses Damkina/Damgalnunna/Ninmah/Ninhursag. It was in a manuscript by +o+ (the Temple of THEM) where I got the idea that Davcina could be Damkina. I didn't bother with trying to figure out whether or not +o+ was right about that-- I already doubted +o+'s ability to correctly identify the divinities of Hebdomadry with deities from older polytheisms for a reason (they were usually right, but sometimes they weren't). Instead, I asked Qalilitu, my matron demoness, about Davcina. I channeled large amounts of information about what Davcina's abilities and attributes were. When I later started researching Damkina, I found that the descriptions of that Sumerian goddess matched both the descriptions of Davcina in Hebdomadry as well as my personal gnosis about her.

So, I decided to perform an experiment. I was still in the ONA at this point, so I had a bunch of Niners seek personal gnosis about whether or not Davcina was the same entity as Damkina, as well as whether Damkina and Davcina were the same entity as Damgalnunna and Ninhursag. My gnosis was largely confirmed-- these four entities were the same goddess, but they were different aspects of that goddess. These different aspects would act independently of one another, even to the extent of occupying different ranks in the hierarchies of the gods.

You're probably wondering why the fuck I was so cautious. I had channeled personal gnosis that confirmed the postulations of an authority in Hebdomadry, and not only that, I had had the accuracy of my personal gnosis confirmed by later research about Damkina. Why was I so paranoid that I felt the need to correspond with other practitioners? Well, let's talk about Ahriman, and I'll tell you how I figured out the he was a separate entity from Satan.

Ahriman is a devil from an ancient paradigm of absolute black-and-white duotheism known as Zoroastrianism, which religion is named for its founder, a spiritual teacher named Zoroaster or Zarathustra. In Zoroastrianism, Ahriman is not simply the leader of the evil spirits called daevas or dews. He is the sentient hypostasis of Druj itself.

Druj, a philosophical concept in Zoroastrianism, is linguistically translated to the English words "falsehood," "evil," and "destruction." It's a metaphysical force which struggles against the force of Asha, and the two linguistic roots for the word Druj come from words meaning "below" and "to blacken."

The daevas were simply the various divinities of neighboring polytheisms-- "daeva" is variously translated as "wrong god," "false god," and "god that is to be rejected." The word "devas" is used in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism in reference to divine beings and/or gods (albeit in somewhat different ways). The worship of daevas was believed to inadvertently engender the furtherance of Druj, as did the practice of Yatuik Dinoh (witchcraft), for the daevas sought the increase of chaos, deception, and turmoil.

Progressions of Zoroastrian doctrine came to redefine the daevas as personifications of immoral traits. The six arch-daevas personified the six foremost sinful behaviors, just like the two demonological classifications of Peter Binsfield and The Lanterne of Light attributed seven demons to the seven deadly sins. The six arch-daevas struggled against the six "divine sparks" which equate to archangels in Zoroastrianism. Among the daevas was Aeshma-Daeva, the dew/daeva of wrath often identified with Asmodeus in Abrahamic demonology. He's going to come up later, as will the arch-daeva Indar and the daevic bride of Ahriman known variously as Az, Jeh, Jehu, and Jahi.

Needless to say, Druj is a feminine noun (Asha is neuter). The name "Jehu" translates to "Whore," and menstruation came about when Az-Jehu convinced Ahriman to engender great evil. Adherents to polytheism worshiped devils in disguise, and of course, most artistic representations of Jesus take influence from the iconography of Zoroaster. You get the idea.

The Coven of the Second Torch, which I led, originated with only myself and two incredibly gifted neophytes whom I refer to in writing as Terror and Chase. Unlike me, Chase and Terror had the gift of mediumship, so they would regularly become vessels for consensual possession by the spirits which Hecate has designated as our teachers. We'd had three Hecatean spirit guides assigned to us, and their names are to never be published. The daimon (I only use the word 'daimon' to refer to the non-deity spirits of Greek and Roman polytheism) assigned to me was a hermaphroditic empousa-- a powerful, young emissary of Hecate full of vitality. The daimon assigned to Chase was a male lamia-- a daimon once banished to wander eternity before Hecate suddenly freed him so that he could become one of our guides. Both of these spirits came to answer to the archdaimon, a male strigae, who was assigned to Terror-- the youngest member of the coven.

When the archdaimonic strigae possessed Terror, he would become limited to Terror's vocabulary if he spoke to me in English. In one of our later seances, the archstrigae told me that while he did not know where he came from, he did know that the strigiai (the vampyric owl-daimones among Hecate's nocturnal procession) were created by Hecate and "the Winged God" via asexual reproduction.

He looked at me, doubting that I would know which deity he was referring to. I had to guess, and I guessed right (Hermes). The archdaimon would remember the name Hermes and be able to say the name Hermes until the possession seance ended, at which point the daimon would leave the vessel and Terror would become conscious with no memory of the seance. Terror still wouldn't know who Hermes was when he awakened. While the strigae still knows who Hermes is and can still give excellent insights into the nature and history of Hermes, he didn't know the name Hermes when he was in Terror's body. These are the mechanics of possession.

So, I now had coven gnosis about the origin of strigiai. Could I rely on it? I would later go on to read the Greek Magickal Papyrus and learn that Hermekate was a codified metagod used in ancient sorcery-- a union of Hermes and Hekate comparable to Lidagon (the union of Darkat and Dagon) and Hermaphrodite.

One night, the Coven of the Second Torch invited two non-initiates to a casual hang-out. It was a casual affair, but after two of Chase and I's coworkers overheard us talking on shift and asked to join the coven, we were getting greedy. Most witches in their twenties can't achieve an evocation, but the three of us could teach anyone to do it, and no one who endeavored ritual with us ever doubted that what we did was real. We were naive-- just because we could show people that magick was real didn't mean they would be brave enough to pursue initiation, and just because someone performed a ritual with us that permanently improved their life didn't mean that they would share our drive for attainment. Many who came to us would perform an evocation with us if they'd been contacted by the spirits of Satan (or in this case, it was the spirits of Tezcatlipoca and Tlazolteotl which one of the non-initiates had had an experience with), and even if they weren't able to see and communicate with what we summoned like we could, they would get results (and sometimes knowledge) that would benefit them forever, and then they would decide within days that our path was too... much. Our role in their lives was to make them understand the revelations and experiences they had received before they came to us. We struggled to learn the lesson that experience of the Numinous does not prove that one is destined for the Craft.

Terror entered total possession while Chase was taking a nap, which was difficult for the non-initiates to watch. Despite the fact that we were gifted, possession was still new to us, so the way we act to give the spirits hold of us is more dramatic than it is for some. One of the non-initiates was quiet, but the other kept asking me if I could say for certain that what was going on was safe-- and he kept asking.

"Are you sure he's okay?"

"It's fine," I said. "He does this all the time. We all do. I can't do it like he and Chase can, but we all love it."

The possession took hold and I started speaking with the spirit. The non-initiate who'd expressed his worries to me was quiet while the other kept asking questions to see how the archdaimon would answer. The boy believed that what was happening was real, but he was skeptical about the spirit itself. He asked how the world was created, how it would end, and the daimon answered. The answers were consistently smarter than anything that Terror and Chase could come up with together, they provided incredible wisdom, and they knew impossible things. Non-initiates who witnessed our seances were always taken aback by that, especially this querent.

The other non-initiate looked up and nervously broke his silence. "Terror's a really good friend of mine," he said. "I know a human can't do much, but if you hurt him, I will do everything I can to kill you."

The archdaimon put his hand on the man's shoulders. "I know that," he said. "That's why I consider you a friend."

The non-initiate was shocked, and he gradually started to trust the strigae and our Craft. As the conversation progressed, I decided to ask the strigae which spirit our coven should evoke later that night when the non-initiates were gone.

"The Prince of Persia," said the archdaimon through the possessed body of Terror.

This very much confused the non-initiates. "The movie?" One of them asked.

"That's a nickname," the daimon said. "V.K. will know who I mean."

I thought for a second and then made a guess. "Asmodeus?"

The strigae nodded with the vessel's head. "Yes, Asmodeus!" he answered. "He kicked Raphael's ass once, but the Bible and lied about it." He blinked. "Well, shit, that wasn't the Bible... Uh, anyway, you can basically ask Asmodeus for any kind of strength that you want."

I'm paraphrasing the spirit's responses about as accurately as I can. This is how I found out that Aeshma-Daeva, the evil spirit of Persian religion (Zoroastrianism) was the same entity as Asmodeus. I thought for a moment. "Is Ahriman the same being as Satan?" I asked.

The spirit said yes, but the vessel's facial expression confused me. Like he'd become unhappy about something, or disappointed in some way, and he'd just been smiling when he spoke of Asmodeus.

I remembered Robert Fraize's claim that Tiamat and Satan are the same entity. I'd never believed that was true, but if Ahriman and Satan really were the same, maybe this whole soft polytheism thing holds more water than I thought it did. Before I started leading a coven, I wasn't even sure whether or not Satan wasn't just part of the mind like so many thinkers said. We were just getting started, and things were happening so quickly.

"Is Tiamat the same as Satan too?" I asked.

"Yes," the archstrigae said again, still with that look on the vessel's face.

I thought for a moment, trying to reconcile these facts (lies) with what I already knew.

"Shouldn't Satan be the same as Absu instead?" I asked. "Absu's male, Tiamat should probably be Lilith, right?"

"Oh yeah," said the archdaimon. "You're right."

Something was up. The archdaimon was knowledgeable of every deity I'd asked it about despite being consistently limited by Terror's vocabulary. The lamia that was assigned to Chase wasn't familiar with most of the deities that modern black magickians work with, but the archstrigai always gave reliable insights about deities that Terror had never heard of. He was even familiar with the difference between the Baphomet of the ONA and the Baphomet of Eliphas Levi-- he gave me great insights about the latter (we'll get back to that). He gave me advice about how to summon the ONA's Baphomet that was completely unlike anything the ONA had advised, and I was pleasantly surprised when I later read a piece of that same advice in Evoking Eternity by E.A. Koetting.

Besides, the spirit went from not being able to name Asmodeus despite knowing the that the demon had originated in Persian religion to knowing the truth behind the myth of the fight between Asmodeus and Raphael. He was not only familiar with that myth, he was even clearly familiar with the existence of the apocryphal Book of Tobit from which the myth originated. He had demonstrated that he knew the Book of Tobit was not included in the Bible despite being incapable of producing the name of the text with Terror's lips (I had to Google it myself). The whole thing was fucking amazing. Something like confusing Tiamat and Absu with one another wasn't like him.

When the strigae left Terror's body, I told him that we were supposed to summon Asmodeus as he recovered from grogginess (which only took a moment). Terror's immediate response was "Who the fuck is Asmodeus?"

"The Prince of Persia," I said.

After the ritual to Asmodeus, I never doubted that Aeshma-Daeva and Asmodeus were the same being. But some reason, I didn't feel confident that Ahriman was really Satan. I trusted the strigae completely-- the daimones had loved us since we were little kids, and the strigae even had strong allegiances with the Infernal Divine (Hecate is very much aligned with Satan). Weeks later, during another seance, Chase entered total possession with his new patron demon: Niantiel, the ruler of one of the pathways in the Qliphoth.

Chase had been asleep when we gave the non-initiates our first seance, and Terror wasn't present for this one. Plus, Niantiel was unrelated to the group of daimones which Hecate had sent to guide us. Like Terror, Chase was unfamiliar with Zoroastrianism and Ahriman. It was the perfect opportunity, and Niantiel told me that Satan and Ahriman, while similar, were not the same entity.

This taught me two important things. First, just because your spirits tell you that one entity is the same as another doesn't mean you can believe it. Even if you channel excellent gnosis and your spirits really are invested in your success doesn't mean your personal gnosis or coven gnosis on matters like these will be accurate. You can do everything right when you look for these answers, but it still won't matter. Seeking these answers is almost a lost cause in and of itself. The fact that Asmodeus is Aeshma-Daeva would suggest that Ahriman is Satan, and yet Ahriman and Satan are separate. Figuring out whether one deity is the same as another is really that fucking complicated, so it's no wonder the spirits don't care to tell us the truth and let us carry our misconceptions. That's why there are Satanists who misidentify Satan with so many other gods. Some say Satan was Tiamat, some say he was Marduk, and others say he was Enki-- and those are just the entities that people misidentify Satan with in one religion (Mespotamian polytheism). The spirits allow us to make these misidentifications because the truth of such matters really is that close to being a lost cause.

And it gets worse. Ahriman is not Satan, but Aeshma-Daeva is Asmodeus, so what about Az-Jehu? Az is the same entity as one spirit in Abrahamic religion-- take a guess who. Michael W. Ford identifies Az with Lilith, which makes sense, but he goes on to identify the both of them with Kali, which is more of a stretch, and he also identifies Ahriman with Satan, which we know is wrong. In the Choronzon edition of The Book of the Witch Moon, Ford identifies Cain with Pan.

Ford deserves a lot of fucking respect, and I was wrong not to show him that respect in the past. But really think about this. Ford identifies Cain with Pan in writing. The spirits are right not to trust our judgment about matters like this.

So, are you ready for the answer? Az-Jehu is the same entity as Semyaza, the male leader of the Grigori (the fallen angels called the Watchers). I'm completely confident about that, however ludicrous that sounds. So now, I'm going to give a list of the deity=deity conclusions I've drawn

Satan, Leviathan, Lucifer, and Azazel are all aspects of the same entity. In Qabbalah, the highest aspect of the Devil (which lies beyond even the entirety of the Qliphoth) is referred to as Samael, not to be confused with the angel named Samael or the Qlipha named Samael. So I'll put it like this: Lucifer and Satan are different aspects of Samael which operate independently from one another the same way that Christians believe Jesus, Jehovah, and the Holy Spirit operate (Note: Jesus was just a human who became an overrated immortal charlatan that New Agers are wasting their time with ascended master). Some practitioners of demon magick like E.A. Koetting and Adam Percipio consider Satan and Lucifer to be separate entities, and they're only kind of right. When they call on Lucifer, regardless of believing him to have been a Roman god or whatever, they are still manifesting that same aspect of Samael. The counterintuitive claim made by a YouTuber called "The Serpent's Key" that Paimon is also an aspect of Samael turned out to be true, but Diane Vera's belief that Belial is an aspect of Satan is wrong (which is lame, cuz I believed her).

Amaymon is not the same entity as Mammon.

Machaloth is not the same entity as Magoth.

Astaroth is the same entity as Astarte, Inanna, Ishtar, Isis, and Attar. However, those goddesses are different aspects of one deity, possibly independent aspects at that-- just like Satan and Lucifer.

Abaddon/Apollyon is the same entity as Apollo, the Olympian god of the Sun-- that's something I know for certain. Qalilitu, my matron demoness, told me that Apollo and Abaddon are not independent aspects. Sauroctonos, one of the entities the ONA venerates, is the same entity as Apollo (if you Google Sauroctonos you'll wind up on Apollo's Wikipedia page). However, when Apollo is contacted via Hebdomadry, he manifests in a very unusual way. I have rituals on my website to Lycoctonos/Lyceus (Apollo's manifestation as a wolf) and Sauroctonos (Apollo's manifestation when accessed through Hebdomadry). Only work with Sauroctonos if you're guiding spirits tell you to do so because it's weird as fuck. I was told to perform a certain number of invocations to Sauroctonos and then stop. When I did it one more time than I was told to, Sauroctonos castigated me for it. It was very useful, but I'll probably never work with that manifestation of Abaddon/Apollo again. One of the leading voices in the ONA proclaimed that Abaddon was Abatu based on no evidence whatsoever, and Qalilitu told me they were wrong.

Mephistophiles is the same entity as Ophiel, the Olympic spirit of Mercury. Mephistophiles has nothing to do with Mephitis and he is probably not an aspect of Samael.

Andras is the Zoroastrian daeva Indar and the Hindu deva Indra.

Murmur is the same entity Mormo, the son of Hecate.

Alex Jones is the same entity as Bill Hicks (kidding).

Camio/Caym is the highest aspect of Cain/Qayin. Tubal-Qayin is another aspect of Qayin, which aspect appears to have came into being by some form of initiatory self-transformation he enacted. He isn't the same as Pan though.

Azanigin, Az-Jehu, and Semyaza are all the same entity. I'll have to tell you how I figured that out some time, because it's a long story. Azael, Azazel, and Semyaza are all separate entities from one another, and Azazel and Azrael are not the same.

The goddess which the ONA venerates by the name Baphomet is the planetary spirit of the planet Earth (and she's really great to work with). She is not the same as Lilith, and she has nothing to do with Bastet regardless of what the leading voices in the ONA say. The etymology and history given for Baphomet in ONA literature is completely made up, and they have a devious reason for making it up.

Atazoth of Hebdomadry is the same entity as Azathoth. In fact, Anton Long stole his teachings about Atazoth from Kenneth Grant's teachings about Azathoth (he also stole his teachings about Azanigin from Grant's teachings on Aza, a Gnostic demoness who originated from Az-Jehu).

Budsturga is not the same as Durga.

Darkat is not the same as Lilith.

Satanchia (also called Put Satanachia) is the same as Chia.

Lilith, Eisheth Zenunim, and Na'amah are all separate entities from one another.

But here's the one you've been waiting for: Santa isn't real. And neither is Vindex.

-V.K. Jehannum
Agios Octinomos-Drakosophia